College Corner Presbyterian Church Core Beliefs

The following questions and answers serve as a Summary of our Beliefs and are taken directly from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Our Purpose

1. What is the chief end of man?

Man's chief end is to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31) and enjoy him forever (Psalm 73:25-26).

Bible

2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (Ephesians 2:20), is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him (1 John 1:3).

3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

The Scriptures principally teach what man is believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man (2 Timothy 1:13).

God

4. What is God?

God is a Spirit (John 4:24), infinite (Job 11:7), eternal (Psalm 90:2), and unchangeable (James 1:17), in his being (Exodus 3:14), wisdom (Psalm 147:5), power (Revelation 4:8), holiness (Revelation 15:4), justice, goodness, and truth (Exodus 34:6-7).

5. Are there more Gods than one?

There is but one only (Deuteronomy 6:4), the living and true God (Jeremiah 10:10).

6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19); and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory (1 John 5:7-8).

Mankind

10. How did God create man?

God created man male and female, after his own image (Genesis 1:27), in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Colossians 3:10), with dominion over the creatures (Genesis 1:28).

12. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?

When God had created man, he entered into a Covenant of Life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience (Galatians 3:12); forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death (Genesis 2:17).

13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

Our first parents, being lift to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

SIN

14. What is sin?

Sin is any lack of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God (1 John 3:4).

15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6-8).

16. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?

The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity (Genesis 1:28); all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in the first transgression (Romans 5:18).

17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery (Romans 5:12).

18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin (Romans 5:19), the want of original righteousness (Romans 3:10), and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called Original Sin (Ephesians 2:1); together with all actual sins which proceed from it (Matthew 15:19).

19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

All mankind by their fall lost communion with God (Genesis 3:8), are under his wrath and curse (Ephesians 2:3), and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever (Romans 6:23).

SALVATION

20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life (Ephesians 1:4), did enter into a Covenant of Grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer (Romans 3:21-22).

Jesus Christ

21. Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?

The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5), who, being the eternal Son of God, became man (John 1:14), and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures, yet one person (Romans 9:5), forever (Hebrews 7:24).

22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body (Hebrews 2:14), and a reasonable soul (Matthew 26:38), being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her (Luke 1:31), yet without sin (Hebrews 7:26).

23. What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?

Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet (Acts 3:22), of a priest (Hebrews 5:6), and of a king (Psalm 2:6), both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

The Holy Spirit

29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?

We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us (John 1:12), by his Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-6).

30. How does the Holy Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us (Ephesians 2:8), and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling (Ephesians 3:17).

31. What is effectual calling?

Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit (2 Timothy 1:9), whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery (Acts 2:37), enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ (Acts 26:18), and renewing our wills (Ezekiel 36:26), he persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel (John 6:44).

THE Application of Salvation

32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?

They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification (Romans 8:30), adoption (Ephesians 1:5), and sanctification, and the several benefits in this life do either accompany or flow from them (1 Corinthians 1:30).

33. What is justification?

Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins (Ephesians 1:7), and accepts us as righteous in His sight (2 Corinthians 5:21), only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us (Romans 5:19), and received by faith alone (Galatians 2:16).

34. What is adoption?

Adoption is an act of God's free grace (1 John 1:31), whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God (John 1:12).

35. What is sanctification?

Sanctification is the work of God's free grace (2 Thessalonians 2:13), whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God (Ephesians 4:24), and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness (Romans 8:1).

36. What are all the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:1-2), increase of grace (Proverbs 4:18), and perseverance therein to the end (1 John 5:13).

37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness (Hebrews 12:23), and do immediately pass into glory (Philippians 1:23); and their bodies, being still united to Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:14), do rest in their graves (Isaiah 57:2) till the resurrection (Job 19:26).

38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at resurrection?

At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory (1 Corinthians 15:43), shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment (Matthew 10:32), and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God (1 John 3:2) to all eternity (1 Thessalonians 4:17).